Evidence for semantic satiation: Repeating a category slows subsequent semantic processing.

Ss repeated a visually presented category word 3 or 30 times and then performed a category matching or category membership task. Performance on items from the repeated category was slower following 30 repetitions, even when the repeated category was irrelevant. Repetition also decreased the effect of an irrelevant word flanking the target when the flanker was a member of the repeated category. Prolonged repetition of a word results in the subjective experience of loss of meaning, or semantic satiation. The authors' chronometric studies suggest that this phenomenological effect may be mediated by fatigue or adaptation of the mental structures or psychological pathways that underlie the representation of meaning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)